Joseph Arjé Lissauer was a son of Jesaja Lissauer and Recha Büttenwieser. He was born on 22 October 1892 in Amsterdam and lived with his parents and siblilings at Muiderstraat 8 in Amsterdam. On 3 June 1914 he married Sara Poons, who was born on 11 July 1892 in Gorinchem as the daughter of Salomon Poons and Mina Hildesheim. On 31 January 1916 their daughter Regina was born.
Joseph Arjé Lissauer earned his living as a commercial agent for foreign houses and after his marriage from 4 June 1914 he lived at Hogeweg 81 1st floor in Watergraafsmeer. However, the marriage did not last and on 23 December 1926 the marriage was dissolved by divorce in Amsterdam.
Even before the divorce was pronounced, Regina Lissauer was sent to Bern in Switzerland on 6 November 1926 but returned to Amsterdam on 19 February 1927. From then on she lived with her mother Sara Poons, who by then lived at Andreas Bonnstraat 3 1st floor. Regina survived the Holocaust and married Juda Waterman on 28 July 1948 in Loosdrecht, who was born there on 3 January 1920.
Sara Poons remarried on 26 October 1927 Samuel de Paauw, a son of Eliazer de Paauw and Lea Asscher, who was born on 26 July 1901 in Amsterdam. Before they were forced to move to Afrikanerplein 25 in Amsterdam-Oost in July 1943, Sara, Samuel and Sara's daughter Regina Lissauer had lived in the Gijsbrecht van Aemstelstraat, at Lekstraat and at Rijnstraat. Sara and Samuel eventually survived the Holocaust and after three more post-war removals in Amsterdam, they emigrated to Montreal in Canada in September 1951.
Ten years later, on 28 August 1936, Joseph Arjé Lissauer remarried 28 August 1936 Catharina Dormits, who was widowed from Maurits Heijmans on 26 November 1933. She was born on 5 October 1893 in Arnhem as the daughter of Herman Dormits and Sophia Salomons. From her wedlock with Maurits Heijmans two children were born, namely Meijer and Max Herman. Meijer died in childhood in 1917 only 8 months old but Max Herman Heijmans survived the Holocaust and died in 1997, almost 80 years old.
From 1936, Joseph Arjé Lissauer lived in the upstairs house at Johannes Verhulstsraat 9, but moved with his wife Caharina Dormits on 10 October 1940 to the Van Baerlestraa 57 ground floor. However, at the end of July 1943, they were forced to move to Afrikanerplein 31 2nd floor.
In addition to being a commercial agent, Joseph Arjé Lissauer was also a Reader in the synagogue and a member of the Pastoral Workers Committee at the NIHS, the Dutch Israelite Main Synagogue. After they were obliged to register with the Jewish Council in 1941, notes on his registration card show that he and his wife Catharina were “set-back from deportation” on 3 August 1942. However, their registration cards did not mention an official “Sperre” nor a “Sperre number” that usually should have been stamped into their identity cards.
Nevertheless, Joseph Arjé Lissauer and his wife Catharina Dormits were not arrested until 29 September 1943 and taken to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 60. This was at the time of the last raid on 29 September, when Amsterdam was declared “Judenrein”, the Jewish Council had been dissolved and all members of the Council were taken to Westerbork. Both were put on transport to Bergen-Belsen on 15 February 1944, where Joseph Arjé Lissauer died on 27 January 1945.
On 10 April 1945, three trains left Bergen-Belsen for what eventually had to become Theresienstadt as destination, but the last train came to a halt at the village of Tröbitz after a journey through Germany. Russian troops that had approached were then able to free the surviving prisoners from the train at Tröbitz. Catharina Lissauer-Dormits, however, did not survive this death journey and died on 23 April 1945 during the liberation by the Russians at Tröbitz
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, Population Register Amsterdam/Muiderstraat 8 with the Lissauer family; family registration cards of Joseph Arjé Lissauer and Sara Poons; Militia Register Amsterdam/Joseph Arjé Lissauer; Population Register Watergraafsmeer/Hogeweg 81 with J.A. Lissauer and familie; archive cards of Joseph Arjé Lissauer, Sara Poons, Regina Lissauer, Samuel de Paauw and Catharina Dormits; Various residence cards of Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Joseph Arjé Lissauer and Catharina Lissauer-Dormits and the Wikipedia website listing Jew transports from the Netherlands/transport of 15 February 1944.